The present invention relates generally to improvements in vehicle safety belt retraction reels and it relates more particularly to an improved safety belt retraction reel of the automatic or emergency locking type provided with a mechanism for releasably locking the reel against belt retraction.
As an effective means for minimizing fatalities or injuries to vehicle passengers in the event of accident, safety belts are installed in almost all of the vehicles of recent manufacture, but the percentage of the passengers wearing such safety belt is far from satisfactory. To encourage the motorist and other vehicle passengers to wear the safety belt, various arrangements and devices have been proposed for improving or simplifying the procedures in handling the belt. Among such proposals are a belt retracting winding device, an automatically locking retracting device which obviates any belt length adjustment when wearing the belt, and an emergency locking winding device which permits free movement of the wearer except at the time of an emergency. However, these devices have the defect that a sense of oppression is imparted to the abdomen or shoulder of the belt wearer as the belt winding force is always acting on the wearer, and hence it has been an important object for encouraging the wear of the safety belt to eliminate such sense of oppression from the belt wearer.